Available at any time during the story, the premise involves working with Ironhaven Corporation on its oil rig. However, things go wrong, impacting previous areas with a dark liquid originating from the “primordial depths.” Players must revisit previous areas, collecting over 50 new fish to assess the damage and save the region.

As you build up the new base, a new tier of fishing equipment is available alongside gadgets, abilities and more. There are also new characters, hazards and world events to experience, with two to five hours of playtime in total.

Team17 has also announced that pre-orders are available for a physical Collector’s Edition of the game on PS5 and Nintendo Switch, including all the DLC and a special box for $99.99. Extra goodies include a Sign of Ruin replica, a poster, a compendium of the many fish and variants, a doubloon coin, a map and a message in a bottle. Pre-orders are limited to specific countries, but more are coming soon.

The extent of the new content and whether Dredge will see anything from Dave the Diver is unknown. However, some aberrations include a hammerhead shark with demonic eyes, a translucent fish that can munch on Dave and much more. You’ll also explore from a unique perspective that channels Black Salt Games’ title, adding to the spookiness.

The free content update goes live on December 15th for Nintendo Switch and PC. Stay tuned for more details next week, and check out our review of Dave the Diver here. You can also read our review for Dredge, which is available for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, PC and Nintendo Switch.

The story involves investigating the previous crew that ventured into the biome. You’ll meet some familiar characters (like the Photographer) and unlock four new equipment pieces, an icebreaker-style boat and ice blocks for preserving catches. There are also 11 fish and crab species, a menacing Narwhal to flee from and eight Achievements to earn.

The Pale Reach is estimated to add one to three hours of new content for $5.99. Dredge has another paid DLC, The Iron Rig, launching in 2024, so stay tuned for more details. The cosmic horror fishing game has sold over one million copies since launching in March and garnered critical acclaim. Check out our review here.

To say that this went beyond internal expectations would be an understatement. “We hoped to maybe sell 100,000 copies in our first year. That would have been amazing. That was a top estimate when we were setting our expectations. We smashed through those targets,” per Thorne.

Back then, selling one million copies within a year felt like a “crazy” target. When Dredge launched, it sold over 100,000 units in the first 24 hours. Bastiaens revealed, “We actually had our launch party on a boat,” says Bastiaens, “and we were just refreshing the [sales page] going ‘oh my god, oh my god.'”

Black Salt Games’ next major update for Dredge is a paid expansion, The Pale Reach. It’s out on November 16th and introduces a new icy biome with 11 fish and crabs with new aberrations. As for The Iron Rig, it’s planned to release in 2024. Stay tuned for more updates and check out our review for the base game, which is available now for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS4, PS5, PC and Nintendo Switch.

Dredge: The Pale Reach is the first bit of paid content being released for the game, and brings quite a bit of new content to Dredge, including a new biome that will need players to invest in additional equipment. The new biome will be an icy expanse, and players will have to deal with traversing freezing depths and crystalline canyons.

When it comes to the core fishing gameplay of Dredge, The Pale Reach will bring with it 11 new fish and crab species to catch, as well as new aberrated counterparts for the new targets.

Dredge was slated to get The Iron Rig DLC later this year, but the studio announced back in September that it will be delaying the expansion to some time in 2024, stating that it needed more time with the next expansion.

Check out our review of Dredge.

“We were genuinely disheartened because we had committed to all our dedicated players, but we firmly believed there was only one path forward and that was to delay ‘The Iron Rig’ until next year.”

The good news is that fans can still expect additional content, with details coming soon. It also seems to be paid content, with availability and pricing to be revealed. “We understand this isn’t what we had originally promised, but we hope you understand. Your support means the world to us.”

Dredge released earlier this year for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, PC and Nintendo Switch to critical praise (check out our review here). It’s received three free updates so far, which added map markers, a Passive Mode, Photo Mode, boat customization, and new Aberrations. As for what the upcoming DLC could entail, stay tuned for more information in the coming months.

Of course, there’s more for fearless fishers to hunt, including 13 new Crab Aberrations or Craberrations (who unlock new ship cosmetics) and new shipwrecks. You can also filter out Crabs in the Encyclopedia. The patch also brings new adjustments, like slight buffs to the values of some fishing rods and an aberration catch bonus on all crab pots.

Check out the full patch notes below for more details. Dredge is available for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, PC and Nintendo Switch. Check out our official review for more information. Paid DLC is slated to release in Q4 2023, so stay tuned.

DREDGE Update: v1.3.0

Patch Notes:

Features

• Added Boat Customization
  – After you’ve acquired your dredge crane as part of the main story, a new character will set up shop at Little Marrow – The Painter! He’ll be able to make adjustments to your boat’s appearance.
  – The Painter starts with some basic options available, but you’ll be able to discover additional paint ingredients and flag designs.
• Added crab aberrations (craberrations).
• Added a new filter to the Encyclopedia to display Crabs.
• Added a number of new shipwrecks around the world.

Adjustments

• Equipment tooltips now display the previously hidden “Aberration Catch Bonus” statistic.
  – Slightly buffed some of these values on some rods.
• Rebalanced crab pots slightly.
  – All crab pots provide some aberration catch bonus, with higher tier / special pots offering a larger bonus.
  – Mouth of The Deep catch rate and duration reduced to make progressing the crab pot tech tree more meaningful.

Fixes

• Fixed an issue where in very rare cases, the game would take longer than expected to save. Losing power during this time would cause save files (and in some cases, backup save files) to become corrupt.
• Added a new font which should handle Japanese characters better and prevent them from falling back to use Chinese characters in some scenarios.
• Fixed an issue where clicking on the boat upgrade purchase button too quickly could cause the screen to get stuck.
• Fixed an issue where some areas of the sea floor reported that they were 100m+ deep when they clearly were not.
• Fixed an issue where some achievements would not trigger immediately if the last thing they required was for you to catch a crab.
• Fixed an issue where players could get stuck on the map screen if it was switched to another screen while a marker was being placed.
• Fixed some small animation issues.

There are also ten new Aberrations and eight new types of wildlife. V-Sync has also been added to the settings, and you can now turn off Camera Follow so that the game camera won’t move when the boat turns. Sliders for Spyglass sensitivity and the new Haste feature for disabling visual effects, quickening the pace for speedrunners, are also available.

Check out the trailer and patch notes below. Dredge is available for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, PC and Nintendo Switch. The next update, Boat Point, releases in Q3 2023 and allows for customizing one’s trawler. Paid DLC is planned to release in Q4.

Patch Notes:

Features

Added Photo Mode

• This new ability can be unlocked after providing some assistance to a new character – The Photographer! You’ll find her at a new camp on an island to the south of The Marrows.

Added Passive Mode

• This mode can be activated at any stage by selecting the option from the Settings menu. In this mode, you’ve nothing to fear from the creatures of the deep.

Added 10 new aberrations

Added 8 new types of wildlife for you to encounter, including one that isn’t afraid of the shallows…

Added new settings

• V-sync
• Pause In Background – The default behaviour of this has changed so that the game does not pause when it loses focus.
• Camera Follow Mode – You can now detach the camera from the boat’s turning orientation. This means that when the boat turns, the camera won’t automatically turn to look in the boat’s new direction.
• Spyglass Sensitivity – Sliders for horizontal and vertical movement.
• Haste VFX – Disables the visual effects (FOV pull & screen shake) that occur when the Haste ability is activated.

Adjustments

• Added a new “General” tab to Settings and moved some options around.
• Added a couple of new names to the credits.
• Updated Dolphin SFX.
• Dolphins and some other events are discouraged from swimming over the abyss of Stellar Basin.

Fixes

• Fixed an issue where the Crab Pot / Trawl Net information panel didn’t show correctly the first time if the game was loaded with either of these abilities pre-selected.
• Fixed an issue where the game could freeze when downgrading a trawl net to another net with a smaller internal capacity.
• Fixed an issue where discarding the package from The Mayor never removed the associated map marker.
• Fixed an issue where an island in Devil’s Spine was culling incorrectly.
• Fixed some localization issues.

And for our speedrunning community…

• The Haste activation SFX does not play if Haste was deactivated recently.
• The game now reports a few values to an Autosplitter.

Q2 2023 sees the release of the new Passive Mode, turning monsters non-aggressive for those who want to concentrate on fishing. Photo Mode is also coming, with a new character that will help unlock the camera ability. They’ll also provide details of local wildlife (including new creatures) to photograph.

The third update, Boat Point, is set for Q3 2023 and features boat customization. You can paint your trawler with new colors and add flags, though more details will be revealed later. Finally, in Q4 2023, paid DLC will be released focusing on the Ironhaven Corporation and its new drilling operation.

Though it aims to “revitalize the towns and populations,” they seem to have other motives. New buildings, characters and fish await, along with a rig that requires biomatter.

Dredge is available for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, PC and Nintendo Switch. Check out our official review for more details.

Set in an archipelago called The Marrows, you own a fishing trawler, trying to get by. However, when someone approaches you to unearth different relics, things take a turn. While fishing for over 125 species, you come close to supernatural occurrences, and that’s not accounting for after-dark.

Mixing cosmic horror with fishing, Dredge has several different characters and stories as you complete quests, upgrade the boat and explore further. With time, you’ll receive strange abilities that further enhance your exploration, but at a cost.

Available for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, PC and Nintendo Switch, Dredge is a fresh concept and fairly enthralling. Read our official review, where we awarded it 9 out of 10, for more details.